Tesla, Sinopec may build charging stations in China

LauraHe

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Tesla Motor Inc.'s
TSLA, +0.08%
Chief Executive Elon Musk is reportedly visiting China this month for talks with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. -- better known as Sinopec
0386, +1.72%SNP, +1.26%
-- one of China's largest refiners, to build charging units in Sinopec's nationwide service-station network, according to a Chinese media report Monday. The Chinese refiner would build charging facilities in its gas stations in Beijing at first, and then spread them to the surrounding areas of the port city of Tianjin and Hebei province, said 163.com, an online news portal owned by Internet giant NetEase Inc. Tesla set an attractive price for its Model S in China in January, generating a powerful buzz on Chinese social media (See more in another MarketWatch story here). The electric-car maker was scheduled to start delivering Model S cars to its Chinese customers this month, with Musk visiting the country to kick off sales "personally," according to a Bloomberg News report last week. China has been encouraging a wider use of clean-energy cars, partly due to increasingly worse air pollution, but progress so far has been limited due to a lack of a nationwide charging network.

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